Among all the tasks on our summer list was one that said ‘Wedding’. We hadn’t prepared that much to be honest … Fran had bought an outfit at Glastonbury festival Oxfam shop for £35. Our friend Wendy had skilfully altered it, Jazz had offered to make a cake and we’d booked the register office, a restaurant and evening bar … that was about it. 50 family and friends turned up to the register office and there were 60 of us as the Beirut Mezze Lebanese restaurant. It was fantastic to see all our loved ones in one place and the day went very smoothly (from our viewpoint at least!).

There ceremony was over in about 10 minutes so we had to fill the time afterwards … luckily Weatherspoons on Corn St came to our aid. Beirut Mezze were very welcoming and we had the place to ourselves. They busily laid out 3 courses and plenty of wine and the atmosphere was exactly what we wanted – informal and buzzing.

Stanley stole the show, helping me with my speech and directing the cake cutting. Oddest coincidence was cousin Mike’s partner Sam and I used to work together. Enjoyed Red turning up unexpectedly (but very welcome) … a perfect ‘Pengelly’ moment that kinda made my day. Great to see far flung cousins at the same table and friends from all walks of life getting together.

The cake portions became thinner and thinner so I only got a few atoms of chocolate but it was delicious. Thanks Jazz – it was sensational!

And of course a big thanks to my old friend Mark for being the photographer on the day.

In the evening we had an area reserved at Bambalan – even more people turned up and it was really great to see everyone. No pictures of that, sadly. Fantastic day.